Michael Allyn Wells
poetry in american culture
Saturday, October 19, 2024
I Hear Only Myself Breathing
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Thought Scape
Photo by Fons Heijnsbroek, abstract-art on Unsplash
A blended series of interactive thoughts.
Transcribed to ethical proportion.
Taking up space -- but only in a single dimension.
What would it say-
were it able to speak for itself?
Would the response be linear?
Tangential?
Much adoo about nothing?
#abstract
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Is The Taylor Swifte Endorsement of Kamala Harris the Cultural Zenath for the 2024 Election?
With the 2024 Election Campaign coming at us like an astroid, the endorsement of Kamala Harris for president the night of the Trump - Harris debate has sparked the question of how much impact such an endorsement can have on a national campaign.
We know per recent polling that the race is very tight. We know that Swife has a whole army of fans out there. Not all are voting age, but even those who are not, in most cases have parents that have likely shelled out money for Taylor Swift tickets of merchandise and I think even these young swifties can play an influential role getting parents on board.
Is there another celebrity that could offer as much star power out there? What would it take for Trump to find a counter to Swift? Does it even make a difference.
There are plenty of other cultural influencers out there that have heave lesser fanfair to offer but still bring some unique quark to the campaign. This election is unlike any I have ever witnessed.
Recently Liz Cheney and her father the former Vice President, both Republicans icons historically, have announced that for the sake of the country, they will not support the Republican nominee but instead, vote for Kamala Harris. The day I saw this, I though hell had frozen over. Then on Friday, famous conservative columnist, baseball enthusiasts and author George Will did the same. Again, it was a nod to the importance of saving our democracy from Trump as opposed to any more ideological position on issues.
If this election campaign is unorthodox for any reason, it is because the threat of our democratic republic is in so many people's view trumping other issues. No pun intended.
How Much Difference If Any Will Taylor Swift Make?
Saturday, September 07, 2024
We Must Stop The Genocide Now!
Innocent Civilians -- including women and children are being killed daily. Stand with Artists 4 Cease Fire
#Gaza #StopTheKilling. #Genocide #EthnicCleansing
Saturday, August 31, 2024
A Moon by any other name --
Photo by Dominik Fischer on Unsplash
What poet has not been lured in by the moon? A mystical luminary overhead.
The moon is known by so many names - New Moon, Full Moon, Crescent Moon, Gibbous Moon, Quarter Moon, Blue Moon, Supermoon, Micromoon, Beaver Moon, Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon, Buck Moon, Pink Moon, Blood Moon, Black Moon, Wolf Moon, and Strawberry Moon, to name a few. There are a number of them that named for various mythological Goddesses of the moon.
Also there are any number of geographical variation of some of their moon names listed above and many names given in non-english languages.
There, you have a whole host of writing prompts - write a poem using each of these moons in it.
#moonnames #Moon
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Has A Poem Had Such A Profound Impact on You as to Change Your Life?
Not everyone is keen on poetry and I realized that almost as far back as I became aware of poetry. I guess when I first learned of it realizing what it was, I would hear people from time to time dismissing it as boring, or irrelevant, or too hard to understand was maybe the most common.
Obviously over the years none of this dissuaded me. I crossed over the bridge from being a reader to being a poet as well as a reader myself. So this weekend I was sitting here with things flowing through my head as the tend to do on weekends, and I wondered how many could say that they have read a poem that truly changed their life. If that is the case for you, I'd love to hear about it. What the the poem and how did it change your life?
Since most of my readers are poets themselves, My second question is, have any of you written a poem that changed your life? This could be changing your attitude of life in such a way to modify your life in some way. I suppose it could be a poem you wrote that won a prize and how that might have impacted you.
Anyway, don't be shy. Le's give it up for poetry-- What's the poem that made a difference to you. Even if it was one of your own poems.
#poemschangelives #lifechangingpoems #poetry
Thursday, July 04, 2024
We Hold These Truths - That ALL men & women ARE CREATED EQUAL
The Fourth of July is an important part of the heritage and the history of this country. You may be asking what the difference is. History is a chronology of something from the past towards the present. Heritage is altogether different. Heritage is defined this way:
1.property that descends to an heir. My parents were American and by birth I therefore inherit an ownership in American and all it's freedoms and responsibilities. That is my inheritance.
2. a special or individual possession; an allotted portion. As an immigrant, upon naturalization I may be allotted a portion of those freedoms afforded us under our constitution and laws.
Yes, I know the 4th is all about fireworks, and BBQ, and apple pie, and beer, and so on. But I believe it is important to focus on the word FREEDOM, because that is what the colonies were in search of. Freedom from the King of England. Freedom of religion, to name perhaps the most significant causes.
After our fight with Great Britton to free us from the British commonwealth, we established a Constitution that guarenteed we would have self rule. That we would not be beholden to any King, be it the King of England or one established here in the colonies.
Further, people were free to worship as they so wished. They were not beholden to the King and the Anglican Church, or any other, Catholic or Protestant rite, or Judaism, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist church.
These are founding principles that have guided us for all these hundreds of years. I think it is important on the things that. have made our Democratic Republic the envy of so many.
We are not by any means perfect. but the phraseology "a more perfect union" underscores what we have been striving for. It has been long and it has not been easy, but we have continued to be committed to this quest that our forefathers started us on. Our strength is in our diversity. And though we can be many, we can also be one.
Remember tonight, what an awesome responsibility we have to our nation, to the preservation of a democratic republic, and to be an example to the free world.